Two College Students Dead as Investigation Deepens

University of Mississippi freshman Aidan Hamilton, 18, of Englewood, Colorado, and junior Robert Strang, 20, of Atlanta, were found dead on Sept. 21 in separate places in Oxford. Hamilton died in a Stewart Hall dorm. Strang died in an off-campus house on Van Buren Avenue. First responders were sent about an hour apart.

Packaged kratom-like tablets labeled “Smax, Pseudo-DHM” were recovered at both scenes. Investigators say those pills are sold in gas stations and tobacco shops for a narcotic-like effect. Lafayette County Metro Narcotics still will not call the product the cause. “We do not have confirmed information indicating that kratom or any other substance was a contributing factor in either death.”

Autopsies and toxicology remain open. An agent’s affidavit said Hamilton “could have died due to a Pulmonary Edema,” which can fit an overdose. Strang was “cold to the touch” when crews arrived. Roomates said he used nitrous-oxide “whippets” daily. Twenty to 30 cans were on site, along with the Smax package on a nightstand.

Hamilton had bought items at Puffs Vape, Tobacco and Beer Store in September, including the day before he died. Officials have not sworn in court that the tablets found in his room came from that register. A related affidavit later pointed to a second location, Express Mart #7 in neighboring Yalobusha County.

After a controlled purchase, agents searched Puffs and seized more than 500 units of alleged kratom worth about $1,800, plus THC cartridges and gummies. Yahya Mohamed Mosleh, 51, and Islam Mohamed, 18, were charged with possession of a Schedule I substance with intent to distribute. A clerk told an informant to be careful with the pills “because people were dying from them.”

The university called the losses heartbreaking and said campus police knew of no additional student deaths. Families asked for privacy. Hamilton’s family said he was “a bright, wonderful young man who was taken too soon.”

Two deaths, one day, matching packaging, and a store drawer full of the same class of product is why the case deepened. It is not yet a closed toxicology file. Officials keep the investigations formally separate while local, state, and federal partners work the shops.

Oxford’s student body was told not to speculate. The affidavits are doing the speculating for them, with receipts, labels, and two names that will not return to class.